Forced X Activation
Viscon Forest Park.
At the end of the first phase of the exam, in front of the warehouse.
Figures with sharp auras, fierce expressions, battered appearances, or vigilant looks stood scattered and on guard at the edge of the forest in front of the warehouse.
Ugh-
In the center of the crowd, Baishi forcefully suppressed the extreme urge to vomit. His eyes swept across the familiar yet unfamiliar figures in the crowd, and the shock in his eyes was on the verge of spilling out.
How did I suddenly time-travel? Wasn't I just browsing the comic convention a moment ago?!
Gon with his black spiky hair, Kurapika with his tense expression and blond hair, Killua with his messy silver hair, Hisoka exuding an eerie aura with playing cards turning between his fingertips, and Illumi Zoldyck disguised as someone else with his upper body pierced with golden needles in the middle of the crowd...
Ugh~~
Another wave of unspeakable nausea surged up. Baishi frowned and forcefully endured it, his gaze falling on the number tag 108 on his chest, confusion and puzzlement filling his eyes.
Where did this number tag come from?
Amidst his silent mutterings, his gaze fell upon his own familiar yet unfamiliar hands.
Baishi had naturally been very familiar with his own body after living for twenty or thirty years, especially the knife-scar mark on the back of his left hand that had existed since childhood, which was still present on the back of his hand.
However, compared to the mature and slightly rough skin close to thirty years of age, the smooth, slender, and fair hands greeting his eyes at this moment were noticeably much younger.
Did time-travel come with youth restoration?
Rolling up the sleeve of his black fitted formal suit and looking at the similarly delicate skin, Baishi could not help falling silent. Veins thudded involuntarily on his left hand, which was gripping a black matte walking stick.
Although there were no mirrors or similar objects around right now to reflect and corroborate it, he could basically be certain that his conjecture was most likely correct.
Comparing his height, this aspect did not change much compared to before the time-travel; he could estimate his stature to be around 180cm.
An other-world counterpart? Direct crossed-over replacement? Or could it be soul awakening?!
If it's soul awakening, why didn't I inherit the memories? How on earth did I get here...
His pupils gradually dilated. Baishi forcefully suppressed the lingering urge to vomit, and his thoughts instantly returned to the scene when he attended the White Horse Lake comic convention, with scene after scene of memory images surfacing in his mind.
He remembered that when he attended the comic convention back then, he was cosplaying Sebastian Michaelis from Black Butler, holding a cane sword and strolling around the comic convention everywhere.
As a result, he occasionally spotted a stall selling Twelve Talismans merchandise from Jackie Chan Adventures. On a whim, he directly took out money and bought the twelve exquisitely textured stone Twelve Talismans merchandise, and a talisman wheel of the same material was even included as a free bonus during the process.
As a result...
The memory froze at the moment when the twelve talismans were embedded into the wheel. Baishi's expression solidified somewhat, because the instant the embedding finished, a cargo truck that appeared from nowhere directly hit him, plunging his vision into pitch black.
When he opened his eyes again, he had already appeared in this place, accompanied simultaneously by an extremely intense sensation of dizziness, as if he had been placed inside a washing machine, constantly spinning and being spin-dried.
Ugh~~
The sensation of nausea surged up once more. Baishi, who could no longer control the dizziness and the urge to vomit, could no longer hold back. He reached out to cover his mouth and abruptly turned around, preparing to find a secluded and less crowded place to deal with it.
In his haste, a tall figure suddenly appeared behind him out of nowhere. Dazed and dizzy, he failed to react in time and crashed straight into it.
Thud!
"Sorry, sor-ry!"
Glug! Once he saw clearly who the figure in front of him was, Baishi's apology stopped abruptly. He involuntarily swallowed his saliva, his expression turning somewhat subtle, and his posture even tensing up instinctively.
Blue mohawk, ugly face, upper body and head pierced with golden needles, purple skin, long purple nails on his fingers, maintaining a bizarre smile on his face.
Number 301 Gittarackur... No, it should be Illumi Zoldyck!
Glug! Thud~
Just as Baishi instinctively tensed his body, not knowing how to deal with the situation, Illumi, upon hearing the words of apology, glanced sideways at Baishi. Even with the smiling posture, it was still a sweep of the gaze as if looking at an insect, and immediately afterwards, he nodded with an eerie smile and continued walking toward the distance.
Over there, a little white-haired boy was staring with a tangled expression in another direction.
However, everything at this moment could no longer capture Baishi's attention.
Baishi, who had originally stiffened in place and was frantically racking his brain on how to deal with the situation, suddenly discovered that emotionaless streams of information, as if synthesized by a machine, were constantly surfacing in his consciousness.
[Detecting high-intensity "Nen" oppression...] [Host's living entity is in a state of extreme stress...] [Compatibility breaks through the critical point... Talisman Wheel is forcibly activated...] [Binding host: Baishi] [Extracting life energy nutrients for the first time...] [Analysis target: Illumi Zoldyck (Manipulation-Type Nen user)] [Copyable Advent Emulation Talismans: Assassin Bloodline (Blue), Extreme Rational Thinking (Blue), Ultimate Aura Concealment (Purple), Manipulation-Type: Needle-Person Control (Purple)...] [Life energy nutrients extracted sufficiently... First activation of the Talisman Wheel... Can copy the target's highest quality once... Ding... Target self-selected... Beginning Advent Emulation and talisman evolution...] [Copy completed... Virtual talisman has evolved and generated... Preparing to embed...]
Crack crack crack bang!
Accompanied by a shattering roar, a hazy, illusory stone wheel abruptly surfaced in Baishi's sea of consciousness. Seeing this scene, Baishi's pupils shrank violently, because the shape and appearance of this wheel were precisely the very same wheel he had bought at the comic convention stall earlier.
There were no special patterns, and the entire body was made of quaint stone. The only difference from when he bought it previously was that the twelve zodiac talismans embedded on it had all disappeared at this moment, replaced by twelve originally empty embedding slots, eleven of which were completely sealed off.
And the shattering roar just then came precisely from the uppermost position at the twelve-o'clock spot, which was the single remaining octagonal embedding slot!
Hum~
Amidst a faint humming sound, a black-purple stream of information surfaced in front of the Talisman Wheel.
[Advent Emulation Talisman: Needle-Person Control (Purple)] [Talisman - Needle-Person Control: Manipulation-type Nen ability. The manipulated Nen needles possess extremely strong piercing power. By piercing specialized Nen needles into oneself or the target's brain, absolute control over the target's body, speech, and even partial memories can be achieved...]